>> pelley: tonight, judgment of the people. our new poll has a verdict on the president and the health care law. john dickerson looks at the sobering numbers. alex rodriguez storms out and sounds off. jeff glor on what a-rod said

about the baseball commissioner. >> to put me in his big mantle on the way out, that's a hell of a trophy. >> pelley: chip reid reports on an emergency landing after an escape slide deployed inside the passenger compartment. and we'll speak with clint hill, the only secret service agent to reach president kennedy as the shots were being fired 50 years ago. >> and then just as i approached the president's car there was a third shot. it hit the president in the head. >> pelley: what did you see? captioning sponsored by cbs this is the "cbs evening news" with scott pelley. >> pelley: good evening, what happens when your name is on a product and that product is not working as advertised? well, ask the president. a cbs news poll out tonight finds his job approval rating has fallen to an awl time low since the october 1 rollout of the health care law that he

calls obamacare. have a look. only 37% of americans approve of the job mr. obama is doing that. is down nine points since last month. in this that same time, approval of his affordable care act has dropped from 12 points -- has dropped 12 points from 43% to 31%. john dickerson is our political director. bill daly is in chicago. he was once the president's chief of staff. first to you, john. these numbers in the poll, what strikes you? >> what strikes me, scott, is that when the president has had low approval ratings number before-- like during the debt ceiling night 2011, people still thought he was trustworthy. cbs asked last year and 60% said they did. now only 49% do. >> that's in part because of his broken promise that you you had insurance you liked you could keep it. this will make it very hard for the president to remarket his

affordable care act or to sell other items in his agenda and this is a bruise that's going to keep getting hit because there are credibility tests to come. the president made promises about the law when he was selling it and he's made promises about the web site and those promises are still yet to come due. >> pelley: i want to ask you about something else that jumped out at us. have a look at this. only 7% think the health care law should stay as it is. 48% said that it needs some changes. 43% thinks it should be repealed all together. well, the president only has three years left in his term. i mean, the the health law going to be viable. >> the 43% that want it ripped out, repealed, that's not too much more -- it's not good for the president but it's not too much more than that number was this summer. but the 48% that wants some changes, that explainses why members of the president's party are pushing on him for modifications. what kind of modifications will depend on whether the site is working by the end of the month and whether people are getting signed up in enough numbers. if they're not, there's going to be more pressure on him to fix it. >> pelley: let us bring in

bill daley, mr. obama's chief of staff from 2011 to twelve. mr. dalye, this was the president's highest domestic priority. should he have been asking more questions about whether it was going to succeed? >> well, i think it's pretty obvious that everyone. in the administration should have been asking more questions and i think the basically, scott, said that last thursday in his press conference. so -- his challenge right now, obviously, as john said is to get this back on track first of all with the web site and then just take it week -- day by day, week by week and try to rebuild the belief in that law working. and then addressing the sort of trust and -- trustworthiness problems that obviously came out in this poll. >> pelley: if you were still running the white house staff, would heads be rolling? >> well, i think right now it doesn't do any good to start to chop heads off. right now you've just got to

plow through this. this is the most difficult part of it, that there's no easy fix to any of these things. you've just got to keep going day by day forward, dennis mcdonough, the chief of staff, is a solid guy and henses that. so there's no quick fix. these -- your numbers like john talked about may dropped quickly. they can't be rebuilt quickly. you have to understand that and plow forward. there's no easy fix and no quick turnaround and i think that's what they understand and that's the dilemma. there's no point you can look to in the next month to see a ten-point jump up, at least not anything that they control. maybe some event happens in the world that refocuses attention, but as far as what has to be done, they've just got to grind through this day by day and begin to have some small successes and look for singles and doubles and no triples or home runs. >> pelley: dennis mcdonough the current chief of staff. bill daley in chicago, john dickerson our political

director. thank you, john. in new york today baseball's highest-paid and most controversial player stormed out of his arbitration hearing when the arbitrator said he will not order commissioner bud selig to testify. new york yankee alex rodriguez is appealing his suspension for allegedly using performance-enhancing drugs, or p.e.d.s. here's jeff glor. >> reporter: alex rodriguez left the private hearing and aired his defense in public. >> today i lost my mind. i bang add table and kicked a briefcase and slammed out of the room. >> reporter: rodriguez appeared on wfan radio in new york, which is also broadcast on the yankees television network. >> were you guilty of any of these charges? >> no, and i shouldn't serve -- >> did you do any p.e.d.s? >> no. >> did you obstruct anybody, any witnesses? did you do anything that they accuse you of doing. >> no. >> pelley: . >> nothing? >> nothing. so. >> so you're guilty of nothing. >> i feel like i should be there opening day. >> reporter: rodriguez was

suspendedded for 211 games by major league baseball, a suspension he appealed. >> whether you like me or not, what's wrong is wrong and the system is wrong and whether you're in federal court or state court or kangaroo court that we are today, players need protection. >> reporter: he says baseball commissioner bud selig is out to get him in part because rodriguez is still owed $86 million. >> 100% is personal and i think it's about his legacy and about my legacy and he's trying to destroy me. by the way, he's retiring in 2014 and to put me in his big hasn't -l on the way out, that's a hell of a trophy. >> reporter: major league baseball responded with this statement. typically, players are not present at these hearings. rodriguez chose to be for a time so, scott, the hearing will continue with or without him. >> pelley: jeff, thanks very much. it appears tonight that the

united states is on the verge of an agreement with afghanistan that would clear the way for thousands of u.s. troops to train and assist afghan forces after the nato combat mission ends next year. but there are a lot of ways this deal could go wrong and jeff martin -- david martin is following the story. >> reporter: secretary of state kerry emerged from a meeting with visiting dignitaries to announce a deal. >> in a series of conversations with president karzai and, in the course of this morning even interrupting some of our conversations that we reached an agreement as to the final language that the bilateral security agreement that will be placed before the loya jirga tomorrow. >> reporter: the loya jirga is a council of afghan elders and until the agreement is approved by them and the afghan parliament it's not a done deal. u.s. officials say there are two potential sticking points. one is president karzai's

insistence american troops should never search or attack afghan homes. operations which in the past have resulted in the deaths of afghan civilians. but the u.s. wants the right to send in its own troops, for instance, to rescue a captured american soldier. for that, karzai wants a letter from president obama expressing regret for past civilian casualties and promising u.s. soldiers will only enter afghan homes under extraordinary circumstances. the second issue is immunity for u.s. troops from prosecution under afghan law. without it, the u.s. will pull all its troops out. but president karzai said last month he didn't even discuss immunity with kerry during their marathon negotiating sessions and would leave the entire issue up to the loya jirga. the agreement says nothing about how many american troops would remain in afghanistan after 2014. the president has not made a decision yet, but the number is expected to be around 5,000 to

8,000 compared to the present 48,000. >> pelley: david martin at the pentagon for us tonight. david, thank you very much. the news is often unexpected and something that no one expected happened today aboard a jetblue flight. here's chip reid. >> reporter: it began as a routine flight as jetblue 1266 took off from fort myers, florida, this afternoon heading for boston with 73 passengers and four crew members on board. but about 10 minutes into the flight, suddenly the emergency evacuation slide at the left front of the plane just behind the cockpit deployed, expanding across the aisle and into the front galley. an emergency was declared and the plane was diverted to orlando international airport where it landed safely and the passengers exited through a rear door. the embry air 190, a widely used passenger jet, was taken out of service for tph-pbgs. the national transportation safety board is investigating.

the sudden deployment of an evacuation slide inside an airplane during flight is rare but not unprecedented. in fact, scott, in july, 2008, it happened inside then senator barack obama's presidential campaign plane. no one was injured. >> pelley: chip reid in our washington newsroom. thank you very much, chip. we have a clearer picture tonight of the destruction left by dozens of tornadoes that tore through the midwest on sunday. state officials in illinois say at least 900 homes were destroyed or badly damaged. in indiana, it's about 400 in just one town, kokomo. don dahler is there and we were struck by what he found. >> reporter: we found nancy finch picking through the debris of her childhood home on bell street. >> it is just stuff but when it's your stuff it's a whole different story when you see it scattered everywhere. >> reporter: moments earlier, steve schneider showed up to help.

schneider didn't know finch, he's not even from kokomo. why are you here? >> to help. i just give them a hand today and you never know when it's going to come in your back door. >> anybody hungry? >> reporter: that's about the time sarah miller and jennifer brackett arrived. their homes had been spared. >> they lost everything, we could at least bring them breakfast. >> reporter: down the block, kevin sprinkle was helping a young couple find a new place to live. >> you can take my truck. >> reporter: how long have you known courtney and mike >> five minutes. >> reporter: five minutes? >> this is the first time i've met them. >> you were coming by and decided to help them? >> i came intentionally by. i came intentionally by to help. >> reporter: when a tornado pushed phyllis rawlins' house on to the railroad tracks, the whole neighborhood turned out to remove it. after a day of digging they found her late husband's wedding ring. >> this is it. thank you, god. thank you, god. >> reporter: there are two things that become apparent in

disasters such as this: bad things happen and good people respond. don dahler, cbs news, kokomo, indiana. >> pelley: the federal government has just taken a big step in saving lives on the highways. clarissa ward is in beirut at the scene of a deadly suicide attack. and oprah winfrey shares a laugh and gets a presidential medal when the "cbs evening news" continues. there's a lot i had to do... ... watch my diet. stay active. start insulin... today, i learned there's something i don't have to do anymore. my doctor said that with novolog® flexpen, i don't have to use a syringe and a vial... or carry a cooler. flexpen® comes prefilled with fast-acting insulin used to help control high blood sugar when you eat. dial the exact does. inject by pushing a button. no drawing from a vial. you should eat a meal within 5 to 10 minutes after injecting novolog® (insulin aspart [rdna origin] injection).

>> pelley: they began burying the dead in beirut, lebanon today. twin suicide bombings yesterday killed at least 23 people. the target was iran's embassy-- a sign perhaps that syria's civil war next door is spreading beyond its borders. iran backs the assad dictatorship in syria-- an al qaeda offshoot that claimed responsibility for the bombings backs the rebels in syria. clarissa ward is in beirut. >> reporter: in security camera footage the moment after the first blast you can see people cautiously moving towards the scene. then the second much bigger bomb explodes. at the scene of the blast, investigators sifted through the wreckage looking for evidence. but lebanon's former president emile lahoud told us he didn't need to see the results of that investigation. who do you think is responsible for this, sir? >> the enemies of lebanon and

you know who is the biggest enemy of lebanon? >> reporter: who? >> after experience i can say it is the fundamentalists. >> reporter: an extremist group with ties to al qaeda has claimed responsibility for the attack saying it was revenge for iran's support of hezbollah. the lebanese militia is fighting with syrian government troops against the rebels inside syria. we were granted rare access to the funeral funerals of four heh fighters killed in yesterday's attack. there are thousands of people in this funeral procession marching through the streets of this hezbollah stronghold. they're here not just to mourn the dead but to show solidarity and what they see as a battle for survival. lebanon is now braced for retaliation. the atmosphere was emotionally charged. "death to america" the people

shouted. it's a traditional chant at hezbollah events, but the real threat is much closer to home-- that lebanon may be drawn deeper into syria's civil war as it spreads through the region. clarissa ward, cbs news, beirut. >> pelley: today in a first the federal government said it will require seat belts on new coach buses starting three years from now. accident investigators have pushing for this for decades because, on average, 21 people are killed each year in bus crashes and another 8,000 are hurt. the new rule, though, will not apply to school buses or city transit buses. we'll be right back. and that relief could be in your hand. for many, nexium helps relieve heartburn symptoms from acid reflux disease. find out how you can save at purplepill.com. there is risk of bone fracture and low magnesium levels. side effects may include headache, abdominal pain, and diarrhea.

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state. (laughter) >> reporter: mr. obama told another honoree they have something in common. >> early in oprah winfrey's career her bosses told her she should change her name to susie. (laughter) i have to pause here to say i got the same advice. (laughter) >> pelley: the presidential medal of freedom was created by john f. kennedy 50 years ago, but he never got to present it before he was assassinated. on that day, clint hill made a hero wick attempt to save kennedy's life. he'll tell us his story next. to a goal of under 100. way to go, crestor! yeah! getting to goal is a big deal, especially if you have high cholesterol plus any of these risk factors. because you could be at increased risk for plaque buildup in your arteries over time.

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[ male announcer ] dayquil cold and flu doesn't treat that. it doesn't? [ male announcer ] alka-seltzer plus fights your worst cold symptoms plus has a fast-acting antihistamine. oh what a relief it is! >> pelley: today presidents obama and clinton and their wives visited grave of john f. kennedy as the nation marks the 50th anniversary of his assassination. they were joined by kennedy's sister-in-law ethel and the late president's only grandson, jack schlossberg. when the shots were fired in dallas 50 years ago only one secret service agent managed to reach kennedy. clint hill is 81 now, but his memories are sharp and he shared them with us.

he was assigned to protect mrs. kennedy and hill was standing here closest to the first lady on the side of the car following the presidential limousine. as you're beginning the motorcade through downtown dallas, what is the crowd like and what are your concerns, if any? >> well, the crowd had really grown. it was very large. they couldn't be contained on the sidewalk. erey we 15 to 20 deep on each osidef the street. >> reporter: what are you watching as the cars go through those crowds? >> anybody that's out of the ordinary. that stands out. that isn't dressed like everybody else, that just appears different. those are the kinds of things we have to make note of. >> pelley: as the motorcade turns on the dealey plaza what are you seeing? >> immediately in front of us was the texas school book depository. we didn't see anything unusual and then when we started to straighten out and gain a little bit more speed was when i heard an explosive noise over my right

shoulder. >> reporter: the four agents on the follow-up car snapped their heads toward the noise. the two on the right side assigned to cover the president now looked away from the limousine but as hill turned, his view crossed the president's car. >> i saw the president grab at his throat and move to his left and i knew something was wrong and so that's when i jumped from my position to try and get up on the top of the back of it to form a shield there behind president and mrs. kennedy so no further damage could be done. >> pelley: walk me through it. your foot hits the pavement and what happens? >> well, i jumped off to my left, there was a motorcycle officer immediately to my left so i had to get between the motorcycle and the follow-up car to get to the president's car. the two cars were separated by about five to seven feet and so i ran as fast as i could. later they told me there was a second shot while i was running. i hadn't heard it. and then just as i approached

the president's car there was a third shot. it hit the president in the head. >> pelley: what did you see? >> brain matter, blood, bone fragments all came out of the wound. then mrs. kennedy came up on the trunk. she was trying to grab some of that material and pull it back with her. i got hold of her and put her in the backseat and when i did that his body fell to its left into her lap. his head was in her lap. the right side of his face was up. i could see his eyes were fixed. i could see an area through the skull that there was no brain matter in that area at all so i assumed it was a fatal wound. i turned and gave a thumb's down to the follow-up car crew, i edwant m to sakeurehe ty knew an ithenea scratmed the driver to get us to a hospital. >> pelley: thumb's down meant what? >> that it was a very grave situation. i assumed it was fatal and that's what i really meant. >> reporter: did you attempt to speak to the president? >> no, i didn't try to talk to him at all. and mrs. kennedy, she only said

a couple things when i was there. she said "oh, i have his brains in my hand." and "oh, jack, oh, jack, what have they done? i love you, jack." that's all i heard her say. >> pelley: the limousine sped to parkland hospital and this' where we pick up the story with clint hill on friday. we'll be broadcasting from dealey plaza in dallas to narc 50th anniversary. that's the cbs news for tonight. for all of us at cbs news all around the world, good night. captioning sponsored by cbs captioned by media access group at wgbh access.wgbh.org straight ahead in your only local news at 7:00 prosecutors say they've taken a big step towards shutting down a vicious gang. >> and a congresswoman attacked near east and market. >> but let's get things started with a look at your world in 90